this was narrow in scope, dealing with james comey and his memos. and i thought the wording was, frankly, devastating for comey. your thoughts? >> yeah, listen, i think today is the ultimate vindication of the decision by the trump justice department to fire james comey. he was incompetent and incapable of following his own agency's rules, his own employment contract. this report paints a devastating picture. he took, stole, removed, secret documents, sensitive documents from the fbi. he put them in a safe. he gave them to his lawyers. one of those were classified when he gave them to the lawye lawyers. he authorized a leak. the only good sliver of information in this report for james comey is his lawyers didn't leak the classified information from the memos to the one reporter they talked to. every other step of the process here today, james comey was indicted for bad judgment, bad activities, bad violations of the fbi code of conduct. i can't remember another time in my 30 years covering the fbi that i saw an fbi director referred for prosecution a

never in the history of our country has someone been more thoroughly disgraced and excoriated than james comey and they just released inspector general's report. he should be ashamed of himself. no current or former fbi director has been a singular focus of an ig report. jim comey should be ashamed. joining us now with reaction, the president's attorney jay sekulow. there are a lot of different aspects of this, i thought the words were harsh were devastating, this is a tiny sliver, he signed the three of the four fisa warrants, he also in my view was involved in protecting hillary clinton in that investigation. what level he may have and what may be the bar report is anyone's business but i counterintelligence operation has to be started by a president, that would be obama. on all three of those issues, tell us where you come down. >> i look at the 70 pages, this is a 70 pages of bad news for james comey. let's start with factual determinations by the office of inspector general, and inspector general that was appointed by president obama. the biggest one, james comey said these were his perso

in july 2017, he tweeted james comey leaked classified information, and how can he give up classified information? michael horowitz found comey didn't give any of the classified information in the memos to the media, prompting this in your face response from comey on twitter. "to all those who have spent two years talking about me going to jail and being a liar and a leaguer, ask yourselves why you trust people who have given you bad info for so long including the president?" horwitz said the memos were fbi property and thank him for writing them. >> these are conversations related to obstruction of justice by the president that may end up being part of criminal proceedings after the president leaves office. >> the ig report command of the spotlight work still committed to a trade talks with china. they are ongoing. >> they are talking, the fake news tried to say we weren't talking last week end of the vice premier of china said we have been talking. >> his talks with the taliban in afghanistan appear to be edging closer to an agreement, president trump to date revealing the united st

. >>> in washington, a new report accuses they fired fbi director, james comey, of going robe to target president trump. more on the response. >> reporter: the justice department's watchdogs and former fbi director james comey violated fbi policies when he leaked memos documenting private conversations he had with president donald trump in january 2017. a new inspector general report said what was not permitted was the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive information obtained during the course othe fbi employmentp nt three days after he was prompted to take an unusual step and that's when comey asked a friend, law professor dan richmond, to share the contents of the memos with the new york times. >> i thought it might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. >> reporter: the department of justice has declined to prosecute james comey and his critics, including president donald trump, will likely jump on the findings. the president repeatedly blamed james comey for launching the russia investigation, which dog the first two years of his presidency. >> i did a great service to this co

long-awaited 83 page report the justice department's internal watchdogs included former fbi director james comey violated his agency's policies and employment agreement in his handling of memos documenting private conversations with the president about the russia investigation, quote, we have gone to comey for inconsistent with department policy. what was not permitted was the disclosure of sensitive investigative information obtained during the course of fbi employment in order to achieve a personally desired outcome. after being fired by the president in may 2017 comey told congress he believes the memos were his property to share. >> i understood this to be my recollection recorded of my conversation with the president. as a private citizen i felt free to share that. >> reporter: the answer to general found they were government records, quote, comey's characterization of the memo's personal record finds no support in the law. to get the contents of the memo to the new york times to start a special counsel investigation comey user columbia law school professor as an intermediary. before he was

james comey came and briefed the conference in early july of 2017. he then went to brief the president-elect trump. the inspector general found that he was acting as parts of the investigation. so comey himself was involved in the investigation followed up with a cross fire hurricane team that was running the investigation of the president and his team. they actually determine the classification of this. so very important pieces of evidence that would build into the conspiracy complaints that we have sent to the department of justice. >> jason: i think devin nunes makes a very good points. of course, the damning findings fall on deaf ears of the democrats who continue to stoke unfounded impeachment fantasies against the president. joining me now with the reaction is that andy biggs in california congressman tom mcclintock. i think you for joining us tonight. very quickly starting with mr. mcclintock, i want to get your reaction to this report appeared what is it really tell us? >> well, it's as devin nunes said, one small piece of a much larger pictur

so james comey thinks it's a great day. listen to this. he tweets this out. found no evidence that comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos. i don't need an apology from those who defamed me. but a quick message with sorry we lied about you would be nice. and to all those who have spent two years talking about me going to jail or being a liar or leaker, ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad information for so long, including the president. no, no. you did -- you were deceitful and you technically you didn't leak, but when you give this information to your buddy, the professor, who gives it to the "new york times," essentially a cut out for your leaking. steve: i think the key passage there was he tweeted he didn't release any of the -- he didn't release any classified information contained in the memos to members of the media. lisa: but he did send it onward. steve: what he did was and this is probably why he was not prosecuted. he had leaked directly to the "new york times," that woul

rob: that was two years ago james comey admitted to using his memos to lots of special counsel. eneral's report says comey's actions the dangerous example but will 9 night him. what is next for james comey? rob: here with expert insight, thanks for coming back to the show. what did you make of the inspector general report and the decision here? >> one of the most scathing criticisms i have ever read. it basically destroys what reputation comey had left. they declined to prosecute him because the memo he leaked was not with classified information in it but what the report confirms is comey's arrogance, holier than thou attitude that the rules, everybody else in the fbi had to live with don't apply to him and that's not a good thing to say about the head of the fbi. jillian: the ig report slamming james comey by not safeguarding sensitive information obtained in the course of his fbi employment and by using it to free public pressure for official action comey set a dangerous example for the 35,000 fbi employees and many thousands more former fbi employees to similarly have access t

james comey is responding sent out a tweet. rney -- he is quoting the i.g. report that his attorneys released any classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media. this is james comey. i don't need a public apoll gee from those who defamed me but a quick message with a sorry we lied about you would be nice. i'll take you back, however, to the i.g. report. what it said further about james comey in those memos that were stored in the safe in his ohm. the oig determined kept copies of four of the seven memos in a personal safe at his home and after his removal as f.b.i. director violated f.b.i. policies and his f.b.i. employment agreement by failing to notify the f.b.i. that he had retained them or to seek authorization to retain them. >> none of us have read the report if full. we're hearing tidbits of it. i would like to see it. if you look at comey is going to the bottom line here, right? we didn't find large wrongdoing and there will be bits and pieces of things he did do wrong and breaches of protoc

as has been noted, if anybody in the fbi did what james comey did, they would be fired and prosecuted. here we are again with some of the leadership getting away with it. >> dagen: i want to add one thing -- again, the ig report states that comey violated policies and his employment agreement by sharing these memos. i was curious about the implement agreement part. if the department of justice will not prosecute him, catherine herridge tells us that -- i said, "what about taking his pension away? what punishment would there be?" and she said it's unlikely he will get further punishment because he no longer works there and has been fired. and kudos to catherine on that. >> carley: and everything catherine said that i thought was interesting, he was being investigated under the same statute he investigated hillary clinton. so he obviously knew that what he was doing was not right. brian, my big take away was similar to yours. his reaction to this was stunning. he's doing a victory lap on twitter when he should be so embarrassed. he has this "aw, shucks" personality when he set a holier-

president said never in the history of our country bensalem thoroughly disgraced and excoriated than james comey. he should be ashamed of himself. in response, cia chief john brennan stood up for comey, saying he has far more decent, ethical, and patriotic than you could ever hope to be. it is only because the attorney general and republican senators refused to put country above party that you are not in a world of trouble and hurt -- their protective cocoon is all y temporary. many republicans on capitol hill believe james comey is just the first in a series of blows aimed at fbi and doj officials. special report georgia congressman said we should dismiss any talk that his actions were noble. >> he wasn't acting as captain america, he was acting as a gutter agent at the fbi. >> as he later admitted to congress, it was to prompt the appointment of a special counsel. >> shannon: plenty of media reaction. >> some surprising, most of it not. on chris matthews show, a reporter indicated a doj official indicated that james comey was out to save the country. >> if he were to charge him, it's like puni

. >> sarah, james comey is an out of the woods yet.here still is this ig report that more and probably, you have durham who is pursuing things and couldn't bring up a number of charges along the way, >> absolutely. it's not just frustrating to horwitz. if we want to go back to this decision, not to prosecute comey for leaking his classified memos. it's frustrating to the american people and i see that on twitter. i see people responding like, is there a chewed here just a system? what's going on here? i think we'll just need to take a deep breath. i'm being very vigilant and cautious. i think attorney general william barr is going to do the right thing. but i'm being mindful and i think it's very important for the american people to do the same because john durham is the man in charge here and he is putting together his case and he is working diligently, according to sources. but it's a very tight ship. nothing is leaking. we know that he's looking at all aspects of how comey was involved in the beginning of the investigation into pres

of justice inspector general just released 35, 40 minutes ago looking into former fbi director james comey and how he handled several memos containing information. i'll bring in justice and security analyst on the phone. matt, as julia ainsley who covers the justice explained earlier, this report found comey violated doj policies but declined to prosecute him. what's your takeaway here? >> they declined to prosecute him because it's not a violation of law. it's not a violation to violate doj or fbi policies. it may be for the department but that's different than a criminal act. i think that conclusion by the inspector general that he did violate fbi rules while probably technically true on its face, it just so misses the context of the time. it's so devoid of the context of what happened and what comey was responding to, it really feels me like the ig has missed the mark. you have to go back and remember when comey took this step, the president of the united states had asked him to back off an investigation into the national security adviser. he asked him for loyalty. when comey didn't do

meanwhile he's also speaking out about former fbi director james comey. comey coming under fire in a scathing new report which found he violated fbi policy by leaking memos of his private conversations with the president nbc's hallie jackson is at the white house. >> reporter: the justice department's independent watchdog is blasting james comey for setting a, quote, dangerous example by not safeguarding sensitive information during his time leading the fbi that's specifically referring to memos comey wrote after his interactions with president trump, describing being asked for loyalty and to let go of a former investigation into michael flynn. comey shared one of the memos with a friend to share with a reporter with th revelations triggering the appointment of special counsel robert mueller. >> i thought that might prompt the appointment of a special counsel. >> reporter: the report says comey was not permitted to release sensitive investigative information in order to achieve a personally desired outcome. the ig says he violated fbi policy by doing so an

any classified information in the memos they wrote. >> he wasn't classified is an exoneration for james comey. >> not surprising, the so-called experts would rally to the defense of disgraced former fbi director jim comey. yes, the doj declined to prosecute him over breaking agency rules to damage the president. but all of this talk of exoneration premature. joining me now, saul wisenberg, fox news contributor, saul, you say he could have been charged over what we learned today in the report. would have been a weak case, though. but something else out there that he should be worried about? >> it would have been a very weak case, particularly if it was brought in the district of columbia of virginia. you know, technically, he kept government property. that's not the kind of case anybody wants to bring to a jury. he has potential exposure on the fisa aspect. if a prosecutor were to find, the grand jury were to find that the fisa court was lied to and he was aware of it and was a part of it, he can face exposure there. not saying that's going to happen. i repeatedly cautioned your viewers not to

by separating out james comey, there are a lot of people who have the scenes they believe that that iseally bad news for mccabe, strzok, page, ohr. if they are going to give comey a pass, these others have a great deal of vulnerability ahead of them and the second point, i think the obama-biden legacy is going to be the politicization of putting politics into the worst of the worst. you're supposed to have an fbi, a department of justice, the irs, federal reserve, they are all supposed to be above and beyond politics. and yet where we are eight years later, nine years later, they have politicized some of the institutions that should be on politics. if there is nothing else from james comey and what you saw in the first and second report from the ig, it's that they use this for their own personal gratification, their own personal political agenda and they politicize these departments and agencies and that's important what's tearing up this country because they don't believe there is an of justice under the law. >> greg: to summarize that, thanks, obama. >> juan: there you go. you realiz

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this is what james comey did. this is what he did in a way, as you read this in his own words that are quoted in here. i come across saying, here is a guy who really has no sense of shame. lou: this guy had enablers, co-conspirators, compasses and they were sworn servant of the them or can people. and they behaved in the most dishonorable fashion imaginable and to this point have not been held to account. congressman, as you say difficulty to discuss it because it is gut wrenching to think that the fbi leadership has become and what the agency itself has descended to. cosman could have you with us. thank you so much president trump canceled his weekend trip to poland as a potentially devastating hurricane is barreling toward florida. president trump says he will send vice president mike pence in his place. weather forecasters saying hurricane dorian could slam into florida as a category four hurricane labor day. that would bring life-threatening storm surges along the atlantic coast, high winds of course and poten

report from james comey.mation from the president about the steele dossier shoddy credibility, how the democrats paid for it. the i.g. didn't have a chance to get into it but we'll debate it. the debate over cnn whether it will report on newly hired analyst, director andrew mccabe facing possible indictment. we have darrell issa joining us next. stay there. >> andrew mccabe made a fool out of himself, what he was trying to do was terrible. he was caught, i'm very proud to say we caught him. play it cool and escape heartburn fast with new tums chewy bites cooling sensation. ♪ tum tum tum tums content on their endless quest, to nowhere.s, run hopelessly in their cage. but perhaps this year, a more exhilarating endeavor awaits. defy the laws of human nature,at the summer of audi sales event. get exceptional offers now. should always be working harder.oney that's why, your cash automatically goes into a money market fund when you open a new account. just another reminder of the value you'll find at fidelity. open

james comey says he's exonerated.eral concluded that the former fbi director violated policy. the justice department deciding not to prosecute him. this is what is releasing this stuff. let's get the read from robert wray. so he claims exonerated. what do you think? >> depends on how you view this. the one sense, i think the biggest concern everybody had is there might have been disclosure of classified information. he's said that i'm exonerated because nobody found that i leaked classified information to anyone. >> neil: is that classified? >> i think they were careful enough to make sure that that didn't happen and didn't go beyond his lawyers. but doesn't change the fact that the inspector general had found that this material should not have been released to anyone outside of government without prior authorization, which is what he did not do. >> neil: all right. and he's not going to be punished. >> right. it's not the first time that the inspector general has tagged him for not following the rules. you know, it's

the people he originally sent it to, who were within the fbi at the time. >> we are hearing from james comey himself, at least via twitter, the former fbi director posting a short time ago, " "doj ig found no evidence that comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media. i don't need a public apology from those who defamed me but a quick message we lied about you would be nice. julia, what do we make of what we heard from mr. comey? >> first of all what james comey is tweeting, is he right to talk about this classified distinction, separate from what tom laid out from the secret classifications. classified would have landed him in legal trouble. he's right to focus on that, but we do still see james comey's brand shining through, which is often different from the fbi brand. people who want to be withdrawn, behind the curtain, doing their work, and a big part of this report says that comey's intentions were not to save his country or the fbi but actually to preserve his own public image. you can see how that played into t

because a lot of people are saying that james comey is getting the pass here. >> what comey is tryingf he thinks something is important that that supersedes with the law and with the protocols and procedures are, that's how you get tierney. in this case, it's entirely accurate and rod rosenstein was the one who appointed mueller as a special counsel to have him be this caustic and critical says it awful lot and shows how flagrant these violations were. we chose either he is living in his own world were even more arrogant than we thought he was. >> jon: an interesting piece in the "washington examiner" today detailing this plan by james comey to have a private conversation with president trump and then spring on him some of the details, the salacious details of the steele dossier and record his reaction and transmit it around some of the highest levels of the nation's law enforcement agencies. it's pretty concerning staff. >> event fbi director trying to entrap the president-elect of the united states. and he went out of his way to say he was only doing this for president trump's own g

got a highly anticipated report from the internal watch dog that it found the former fbi director james comey violated policy in his habuling of memos on his interactions with the president. we learned in the report that the doj has declined to prosecute comey over this episode. the report found that he vial aid policies by keeping four memos in a personal safe. it said that he shared one of the memos with a friend and he had that friend leak its contents to the "new york times." that particular memo that was leaked, the report noted, did not contain classified information. comey also, according to the report, shared four memos with his private attorneys. one of which contained information that was retroactively classified at the lowest level. the ig report reads in part, by not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his fbi employment, by using it to create public pressure for official action, comey set a dangerous example for the over 35,000 current fbi employees, and the ms now former fbi employees who similarly have access to or knowledge of nonpublic information

we know james comey was literally worn in multiple occasions.ou broke a least one of those stories about ten days before call me signed the first fisa warrant in october 2016 before the election. he was also worn what we know by bruce ohr as was everybody else for there are potentially other cases where he was warned about the dossier not being verified, it being political, but that's only one path. now, and the mueller report, correct me if i'm wrong, the professor joseph misfit, he was in fact, they thought he was a russian agent. we found out he wasn't a russian intelligence guy. then you have steffes von alper, he is spying on carter page, sam clovis, and papadopoulos, who set that up? who do we know who was involved in that end was intelligence formed out to other countries, allied countries, because it would've been otherwise illegal to do in this country and it was circumventing american want to do so? >> i can report absolutely that the durham investigators have now obtained an audiotape deposition of joseph mrs. where he describes his w

also, thanks to judicial watch, last night we first learned fbi agents actually showed up in james comey'souse one month after he was fired. why? to collect the confidential, yes, maybe illegal memos about the president that he had and that comey effectively stole from the government. so let's get this straight just to sum it up. super patriot jim comey stole classified materials from the government and leaked that information to the press through a professor friend of his. let's eat, premeditated fraud, lied to a court, unverifiable evidence that he never tried to verify, lying to judges on multiple occasions, then aligned to the president, spying on the trump campaign, the trump transition team, and then president trump. that would be called abuse of power. clearly major crimes seemingly committed and tonight, james comey, well, he knows better than we smelly walmart shoppers and trump voters, he will be held accountable. that i will assure you. also tonight, more breaking news. this is about bruce ohr's 302s. here to explain, judicial watch president, fox news contributor, sara carter.

another story that broke yesterday, former fbi director james comey violated agency policies multiple times, top republicans and rod rosenstein sounding off on the inspector general's report which we were expecting as we learn comey will not face charges. >> reporter: the justice department has declined to prosecute the case but it and 83 page report the watchdog -- fbi policies by failing to seek authorization from the fbi to leak memos about his conversations with the president failing to mark those memos being classified. any authorization to remove the memos, deemed government records, donald trump reacted to the news over twitter saying never in the history of our country has someone been more thoroughly disgraced and excoriated than james comey. the inspector general's report, he should be ashamed of himself but comey said he owned an apology, doj found no evidence comey or his attorneys release any classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media. i don't need a public apology to defend me but a quick message with a sorry we lied about you would be n

but this report does not let james comey off the hoochdget it's very scathing. and one quote i'd like to read for you. it says former director comey failed to live up to his responsibility by not safeguarding sensitive information obtained during the course of his fbi employment. he used it to create public pressure for official action. he set a dangerous precedent for over 35,000 current fbi employees. comey should not have taken it upon himself to leak this to the media because it was his intention to try to get a bigger investigation going after he had been fired from his role as director. shortly after that robert mueller was appointed to oversee this investigation. so it did have that desired result. and the inspector general comes down on him for that for breaking fbi and doj policy. >> is there any potential follow-up from lawmakers? is there anything for anybody to do other than just to react to this? >> i think we will see some political football. i don't think this is something where you want to haul more people in for more hearings, although somehow th

trump-russia affair about this meeting, the very first meeting between president-elect trump and james comey6th, 2017. i think in the past they thought of it as a way for comey and the intel chiefs to push this dossier information about the tape into the media to get it reported. they never believed comey's story, but now i think given what's written in the i.g. report, they see it as part of operation or the investigation on this crossfire hurricane that the top officials had kind of gamed it out beforehand, they had set it up so that if trump said anything interesting or of investigative value, james comey was to run down the stairs at trump tower, jump in a car, a secure fbi laptop was waiting for him. he said he began typing as the vehicle rolled, go over to the fbi's field office in new york where a secure video teleconference is waiting where comey will debrief, talking to top fbi officials and the crossfire hurricane meeting. so one other thing. if you look at comey's memoir, he talks about this meeting, and he says that he looked at the president and said we're not investigating you,

meantime, james comey is already talking. what is he saying? s latching onto a part of this report that says that what comey shared with the media was not the classified portion in any of these memos. and so comey is coming out essentially and defending himself on twitter and saying i'm not a leeker. he said i don't need a public apology from those who defamed me but a quick message of sorry we lied about you would be nice and all of those who spent two years about me going to jail or being a liar or a leaker, ask yourselves why you trust people who gave you bad info for so long, including the president. >> and breaking policy or sharing confidential information is not something worth prosecuting? >> well, they referred this, the inspector general referred this to the joij and said essentially it is up to you if you guys decide you want to prosecute this. and what the justice department did was they decided not to. they said it was not clear from the evidence that james comey had actually intended to violate this policy about handling classified

james comey owes the country an apology.did it because he was out to get the president. >> james comey had a personnel vendetta. he believes his role in the fbi was one he was the ultimate judge and jury on anything he did or did not like. >> only in washington, d.c. can you have 70 plus pages of bad news and expect an apology. the inspector general's report will be more damning than this. >> i still have a bone to pick with director comey. greg, should he be prosecuted for leaking memos after being fired? >> that goes back to my initial point. you can't trust tall people. short people are more trust worthy and more down-to-earth. we don't pull this crap. the real jack asses are the media that painted him as a cross. he was their tool. he and mccabe are getting a game show on cnn, called leak, lose or draw. >> he is getting a taste of his own medicine. he said all of the things about hillary clinton. >> it's an interesting one. he has no constituencieconstitu. he alienated a lot of people. i read a lengthy defense of the dec

also, even james comey's own counsel at the fbi, james baker, worried that when mr. comey would say you're not the target of an investigation, james -- liz: to president trump. >> to president trump, repeatedly, according to this ig report. liz: when he was. >> well, they would say we're investigating his campaign. you can't really say that. liz: that's hair splitting. >> hair splitting and also just dishonesty. if people did that to you selling a mattress, you would report them. liz: if an fbi worker did it, james comey would have hung them out to dry. >> right. right. he went after a lot of people and prosecuted people for a lot lesser offenses. he's not out of the woods. the biggest report on the fisa warrant is coming. liz: we have breaking news. the president is speaking just moments ago as he departed the white house. listen. >> the hurricane is roaring and it could be a big one. we're hoping that it maybe makes a right and goes up north but that's about a 5% chance. it's not looking good. and it's one of the biggest hurricanes we've seen in a long time, a long

james comey reacting to the inspector general's report. you can read the report at our website, c-span.org. watch book tv for live coverage of the national book festival saturday starting at 10:00 a.m. asian. -- 10:00 a.m. eastern. david troyer, his work is the heartbeat of wounded knee. sharon robinson talks about her block, child of the dream. rick atkinson, author of the british are coming. malone, founding director of the m.i.t. center for collective intelligence discusses his book, super mines. live, saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern on book tv on c-span2. during a townhall meeting with constituents, california congresswoman katie porter was asked about impeaching president trump. representative porter whose district includes irvine and mission viejo was asked about another -- about a number of other issues. the first time democrat and former law professor worked under then california attorney general kamala harris and had elizabeth warren as a law school professor. this event was held at the islamic center of irvine. [applause] >> good

james comey didn't break the law, but he violated d.o.j. and fbi policy. does that seem reasonable? . number one, that director comey violated d.o.j. policy and these guidelines with respect to information and how to safeguard them, but also that we're in remarkable times and the president of the united states, senior law enforcement officials did not trust him to the point that a number of them around him needed to write memoranda, writing down every word he said because they didn't know he wouldn't lie. even the white house counsel don mcgahn -- and this is in the mueller report, there is an entire section on it. mcgahn whenever he was face to face with the president would write memoranda afterward because he was president certain the president wouldn't lie afterward. so those two things can be true. yes, comey might have behaved in a manner that wasn't entirely appropriate, but also the conduct of the president was so problematic that people behaved in a remarkable way. >> well, that's basically the argument that comey's been making all along. extraordinary times or alarming times

should president trump -- should president trump fire james comey? here is 70 pages of the reason why. by the way, this is not the first time james comey has violated rules, regulations of the department of justice. we've already had reports on that. so that's number one. should the president have fired him for 100 reasons, 70 pages of which are laying out right here. >> here for our leadoff discussion on a thursday night, elizabeth, washington bureau chief for "the new york times." jeremy bash, former chief of staff at the cia and the pentagon as well as former counsel to the house intelligence committee and frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director for counterintelligence. thank you all for being with us. frank, i'll just start with you. did this report say what you expected it to say? >> it did. it tried to straddle the middle. it said that, you know, it said what many inspector generals' reports say, which is that some rules were broken. so my question on that is, which rules are you talking about? the rules that govern a corrupt president t

the president attacked james comey as a liar and a leaker. on at least ten occasions he accused comey of leaking classified information. the ig report says there's no evidence this pertained to any classified information. some of the past president, president obama's own allies, officials there note the context for all this, which is the fact the president himself disclosed classified information in the oval office. he talked about a military strike in front of guests in his property. he even took vladmir putin's word over the word of his own intelligence community. they're all trying to suggest, hey, if we're going to talk about wrongdoing as it were, that most eyes should be focused on president trump. >> legally, their argument would be legally he's able to declassify anything he wants. but of course it created a big stir with the allies, not just the brits but certainly the israelis who were the holders of that very secret information that was disclosed to the russians of all people. barbara mcquaid, jim comey was keeping those memos that

this is a mixed report and obviously james comey has gone onto twitter about the line that they found no evidence that comey released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos to members of the media. so basically the classified portions of these memos were not the portions that were handed over to reporters from "the new york times." but the report itself is still very damming for the fbi director. it goes on to say that he violated fbi policies in the way he handled, retained and disseminated the memos. it says that comey set a dangerous example for other members of the fbi and it points out that he even had these conversations with president trump about how important it is to keep investigatory details secret, to not share information with the press. and then essentially says he was a hypocrite for turning around and doing the same thing himself. it also includes a couple of select quotes from interviews they did with comey's advisers where comey's advisers are telling the ig that they were stunned, they were shocked, it was disappointment to see that this is

i want to put up james comey's tweets responding this morning. eport found no evidence that comey or his attorneys released any of the classified information contained in any of the memos. i don't need a public apology from those who defamed me. but a quick message with a sorry we lied about you would be nice. and unto all of those who have spent two years talking about me going to jail, ask yourselves why you still trust people who gave you bad info for so long including the president. a lot of people have strong opinions about bill barr. and it is interesting to me that people are saying, oh, look, it's george h.w.'s bill barr and choosing not to criminally prosecute. let's set that aside. but no matter what you think of bill barr, the fact that he did not, you know, decide to prosecute, that's not a small deal, right? >> well, i think -- >> considering what the president had promised and all of those things. >> look, i think there was no case here. >> right. that's my point. >> if he could have at least had an illusion of a case, the theory goe

report on james comey shows in the strongest of terms how unfairly i and tens of millions of great people who support me were treated. and calling comey a dishonest fool. joining we now the former u.s. attorney and former federal prosecutor and msnbc legal analyst glenn kirschner perfect gentlemen to have with us this morning. greg, you worked directly with james comey. in the tweets over the last hour the president also said what this report shows is that a.g. barr is fair and reasonable. it also shows that he did some stuff wrong. how do you read it? >> i read the report as documenting the fact that this fbi director found himself in an unprecedented situation. he thought he had been a witness to potentially a criminal conduct on the part of the president. he created memos to memorialize those conversations with the president. as it turns out the i.g. report finds that director comey didn't handle those memos in exactly the right way under d.o.j. and fbi policies. the i.g. in so finding was simply doing its job but also found director comey did not intentionally violate policies, did no

according to the hills john solomon, the doj has decided not to prosecute james comey on the grounds that punishing him for breaking the law would seem, cold, petty and vindictive. of course, petty and vindictive describes the culture of the fbi under jim comey. patty and petty and vindictive is the regent reason roger stone has been treated more harshly than jeffrey epstein ever was. petty and vindictive sums up the entire russia investigation. and the effort to destroy donald trump's entire life. he abused the public's trust peered in 2016, he repeatedly injected himself into the political arena and by his own admission, he considered the political effect of his actions when he did so. his subordinates meanwhile, pete molly peter strzok and lisa page, low some people, repeatedly conspired to use fbi resources to sabotage the presidential campaign didn't like. then in 2017, there was a climax peered according to reports, call me lights of the press and his boss telling him he was not under investigation. in fact, comey wasn't maneuvering to begin an investigation. then with the leaks

james comey gets a break on this one. the reports are. >> sean: that attorney general declined to prosecute. that's not a final determination necessarily, is it. >> no, it is. on this matter, it is close. the justice department has decided not to prosecute comey. hillary clinton and comey get one outcome. people like flynn and christian and others get a different one. i think you have to look at the bigger picture. the attorney general here is looking at the possibility, can i when this case a new york customer if i lose the case in new york, what message does that sound that an fbi director got let off? >> sean: how many people got in trouble for lying or lack of candor? >> well, there's a lot over the last few years. james comey and andrew mccabe. you just talked about those documents that tom got. when the fbi agents showed up at his house and they collected his information that he had wrongly taken from the fbi, he did not tell the fbi, by the way, i sent this on to other people. he kept that a secret, which caused th

it was the same james comey that says he doesn't do sneaky stuff. he doesn't do leaking. he does all of those things. and not only is it ethically across the line, but what was the predicate to do that? why were they doing that? this president has been in office for literally hours before they started to hatch this plan. >> martha: and that goes back to bill barr's phrase, adequately predicated. thank you very much, jason chaffetz. i want to bring in another take on this breaking story, former acting attorney general matt whitaker. good to see you tonight. your reaction to the potential for this comey memo, comey report? >> i think it's going to lay bare a lot of the rumors or innuendo we've heard. it's going to say specifically what jim did leak and how he leaked it and i think one of the things it's also going to lay bare once you have the story of comey and mccabe pulled together, is that there is a culture of leaking in the senior offices of the fbi that really was out of control and these folks were running -- they did not believe that they were in the chain of comma